445

    Take me alive, and I will pay the price

Of my redemption.  I have gold at home,
Brass also, and bright steel, and when report
Of my captivity within your fleet
Shall reach my father, treasures he will give 450
Not to be told, for ransom of his son. 

    To whom Ulysses politic replied. 

Take courage; entertain no thought of death.[16]
But haste! this tell me, and disclose the truth. 
Why thus toward the ships comest thou alone 455
From yonder host, by night, while others sleep? 
To spoil some carcase? or from Hector sent
A spy of all that passes in the fleet? 
Or by thy curiosity impell’d? 

    Then Dolon, his limbs trembling, thus replied. 460

To my great detriment, and far beyond
My own design, Hector trepann’d me forth,
Who promised me the steeds of Peleus’ son
Illustrious, and his brazen chariot bright. 
He bade me, under night’s fast-flitting shades 465
Approach our enemies, a spy, to learn
If still as heretofore, ye station guards
For safety of your fleet, or if subdued
Completely, ye intend immediate flight,
And worn with labor, have no will to watch. 470

    To whom Ulysses, smiling, thus replied. 

Thou hadst, in truth, an appetite to gifts
Of no mean value, coveting the steeds
Of brave AEacides; but steeds are they
Of fiery sort, difficult to be ruled 475
By force of mortal man, Achilles’ self
Except, whom an immortal mother bore. 
But tell me yet again; use no disguise;
Where left’st thou, at thy coming forth, your Chief,
The valiant Hector? where hath he disposed 480
His armor battle-worn, and where his steeds? 
What other quarters of your host are watch’d? 
Where lodge the guard, and what intend ye next? 
Still to abide in prospect of the fleet? 
Or well-content that ye have thus reduced 485
Achaia’s host, will ye retire to Troy? 

    To whom this answer Dolon straight returned

Son of Eumedes.  With unfeigning truth
Simply and plainly will I utter all. 
Hector, with all the Senatorial Chiefs, 490
Beside the tomb of sacred Ilius sits
Consulting, from the noisy camp remote. 
But for the guards, Hero! concerning whom
Thou hast inquired, there is no certain watch
And regular appointed o’er the camp; 495
The native[17] Trojans (for they can no less)
Sit sleepless all, and each his next exhorts
To vigilance; but all our foreign aids,
Who neither wives nor children hazard here,
Trusting the Trojans for that service, sleep. 500

    To whom Ulysses, ever wise, replied. 

How sleep the strangers and allies?—­apart? 
Or with the Trojans mingled?—­I would